Had I never seen this thoughtful man help a struggling mother with a baby stroller I would never have slowed down and would have instead been halfway between the station and my apartment.
Walking home half dazed from this most rare of positive occurrences, I came across an elderly woman tucked behind a push cart bursting with black plastic bodega bags organizing the remnants of her life sitting on the stairs next to my building. No more then 5 minutes after being home, I had walked outside with a large plastic cup of cold ice water in hand. It was this; the smallest act of giving that started me thinking maybe charity is contagious.
Summers in NYC can be interesting depending on where you go. I’ve seen the city utilize its’ financial resources to call in police copters, swat teams, K-9 patrol units and countless under cover detectives in the arrest of one individual. All the while a growing mass of panhandlers, derelicts, bums, beggars, and homeless persons, both crippled and crazy are left to die in the blistering summer heat. From Ueno Park in Tokyo where the homeless build lean-tos and shelters of tarps and found objects, to Prospect Park in Brooklyn where a mid summers night dream is had on a mattress of free New York Posts and Daily News, homelessness is global epidemic. Thinking about the resources governments pour into combating civil and criminal disobedience, while the bulk of social issues such as homelessness and hunger are left to religious organizations, non-profits and city agencies is upsetting.
Having briefly flirted with homelessness since I was a child, I would always imagine my situation switched in some Trading Places-esque scenario with whatever down on their luck individual I passed on the street. All the while asking myself what had happened and where did it all go wrong. Sure, I’ve spent months if not collective years camped out on couches and cots, sleeping on floors, living out of tents, and calling a closet my bedroom… I’ve even pimped myself out for a clean hotel room with a comfortable bed and warm shower… in search for more money, more work or a better life, but I’ve never been truly been homeless.
To my credit I was born with a loving and financially stable family, a healthy body, a good mind and the ability to create something from nothing more then a dream and my word. Over the years I’ve armed myself with a college education, some cooking ability and sense of judgment good enough to know what is right and what is, well what just is. With that said, I don’t think it is as important to think about how someone truly becomes homeless, as much as it is to think about why you yourself are not. As I get older and my paychecks get bigger, I think it’s important to consciously give something back.
Don’t think community impact is you thing? Well guess what? Everybody is doing it, from your favorite professional athlete that donates a portion of their multi million dollar deal to a charitable foundation in their own name and Bill Gates who just left Microsoft to pursue philanthropy as a full time profession, to the thoughtful man who took just a few minutes to help a young mother with her stroller, people are doing their part to help out. Whether it’s buying a brownie at a church bake sale, donating your time to painting a mural in your community, or giving canned goods to a holiday food drive, you’ll see that when you start to give back others will follow suit.
